The invention relates to a harvesting machine, particularly to a self-propelled pick-up chopper for picking up and chopping corn, wilted grass, green feed and similar harvested produce, with an ejection elbow, which is arranged downstream from pulling-in and chopping devices, and can be swiveled by a motor and is intended to transfer the harvested produce to a loading space of an accompanying vehicle.
Harvesting machines of the aforementioned type are known. If they are constructed as pick-up choppers, they transfer the harvested material while harvesting over the ejection elbow into the loading space of an accompanying vehicle which is traveling next to the pick-up chopper and must assume a distance and a position relative to the pick-up chopper so that when the ejection elbow is positioned, harvested material can be transferred reliably to the loading space as far as possible without loss. However, when the direction of travel of the pick-up chopper is changed on a portion of a field, time-consuming new positioning work arises for adjusting the ejection elbow accurately, because, when the pick-up chopper is traveling in the opposite direction, the accompanying vehicle must travel on the already harvested region of the field and therefore the ejection elbow must be transferred into the operating position facing this harvested region of the field.
It is an object of the present invention to simplify the time-consuming positioning work.
A harvesting machine in accordance with the invention is designed so that, when changing its direction of travel, it is possible to transfer the ejection elbow automatically into a pre-programmable position, especially into the mirror image position, through the use of the control device, so that in the case of the agreed upon positioning of the accompanying vehicle and the pick-up chopper after a change in the direction of travel, the ejection elbow assumes, for example, precisely the positioning which had existed before the change in the direction of travel. For this purpose, a time-consuming re-positioning of the ejection elbow by the operator of the pick-up chopper is not required. The time advantage while harvesting a field, associated therewith, is appreciable. Moreover, positioning mistakes are effectively decreased so that the operator, after turning the harvesting machine, can resume his harvesting travel very quickly. The motor-driven swiveling can be accomplished by known driving mechanisms, such as servomotors, hydraulic units, ratchet mechanisms and similar mechanical driving mechanisms.
The parts of the control device necessary for the control are constructed relatively simply. For example, a marking for a zero point position which can be recognized by an optical sensor which sends a signal to the control device may be provided on a turntable of the ejection elbow. By means of a proximity switch, but also, for example, by means of a gear wheel, meshing with the turntable of the ejection elbow, the angle between the first operating position and the zero point position can be determined with simple structural parts, so that, for assuming the mirror image position of the first operating position (second operating position) only the angle which may be traversed in order to reach the zero point position has to be added by the control unit in order to position the ejection elbow in the second operating position. However, the angle need not necessarily be measured digitally. Moreover, analog sensors may also be used. The angle can also be measured incrementally. Further automatic functions can be realized by means of parts for measuring angles.